inside FEATURES Getting paid
The well-known saying is ‘Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king.’ DELLA HUDSON of Hudson Business Accountants and Advisers, offers advice on improving your cashflow.
here are some top tips for getting paid faster: W
1. Check your prospect’s credit rating before you try to sell to them. Perhaps they are keen to try a new supplier because they’ve exhausted their credit facilities elsewhere. If you find out too late that you’ve sold to poor credit risks you can end up paying for the goods but never receiving any payment. If you have to wait a long time to receive payment then you need a way to fund your supplies or your salaries in the meantime.
2. Make sure that your terms and conditions of sale are clear, either on a contract or on your invoice: preferably both. If the customer has different conditions of purchase/payment then you must negotiate.
3. On completion of work you could arrange a courtesy call to check that the customer is happy, and that they have received the invoice and approved it for payment. This gives you time to rectify any perceived problem with the service.
4. If payment is not received on the due date then call straight away. At this stage it can be a polite enquiry to ensure that everything is satisfactory. If payment is delayed, find out whether or not they can give you an expected date so that you can negotiate your overdraft. Decide whether to continue supplying this customer. If the deadline for payment is passed once
22 insight MARCH/APRIL 2017
hile you might be great at getting people to buy your product, a sale is not a sale until it has been paid. With that in mind,
faster
BUSINESS GROWTH
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32